


Flowers for Pure

by zinabug



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Baby hornet bosses around the entire white palace asmr, But they aren’t really in the story, Dubious medical care given by a child (it’s for the equivalent of a scraped knee dw), Fluff, Gen, Hornet causes problems on purpose, Hornet... stubborn baby, Light Angst, Pre-Canon, Pure represses emotions and gets showered with well meaning but possibly painful affection, She wants! Her sibling!, Sibling Bonding, There’s also mentions of some random castle people, no beta we die like PK, plus Herrah, takes place before the dreamers are asleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:54:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29304567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinabug/pseuds/zinabug
Summary: Hornet avoids a lesson. Pure gets a flower crown.
Relationships: The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & Hornet
Comments: 15
Kudos: 68





	Flowers for Pure

“I got flowers for Pure!” Hornet pulled a slightly wilted wreath from under her cloak and held it up to the retainer walking her along the halls of the palace. 

“That explains why you’re such a mess then.” The retainer sniffed. “Digging in the garden again, weren’t you.” 

Hornet looked at the floor. A leaf fell off of her head. “I wasn’t  _ digging _ .” 

“Yes, well.” The retainer sniffed again. “You’re still a mess. What will the teacher think?”

“She doesn’t mind!” Hornet scuffed her feet along the tiled floor, squeaking her shoes loudly on purpose. “We dig in the garden for her lessons sometimes!” 

“Hm.” The retainer frowned. “If you give The Vessel flowers again the ki— your father may be upset. 

“They like them!”

“It cannot  _ like  _ things.” 

Hornet considered tripping him. She’d had this argument before, and it would always just end at her being told to shut up, so she stayed quiet and angry instead. 

The retainer cleared his throat after an uncomfortably long silence. “Your lesson will be on the balcony today.”

“Will Pure be there?”

“The Vessel is busy with its training.”

“They’re always training!” Hornet crossed her arms. “I want them to come to my lesson with me.”

The retainer sighed heavily. “The Vessel does not need to—“

“If they don’t come I’m not going to go either.” Hornet scowled. 

“Princess, you don’t have a choice—“

“I want Pure to come to my lesson!” Hornet stopped walking and stomped her foot. 

The retainer sighed and wiped his face with his sleeve. “Princess, you are acting like a child.”

“I am a child!” Hornet shouted, and, before he could react, she slammed her toy needle into his shins and took off running down the hall. She was done with him, and done with being told to stop doing things, and she wanted to give Pure her flowers.

“Princess!” 

Hornet ignored the yell of the retainer and kept running, almost tripping on the strand of silk trailing from her needle. She knew she was faster than him, and he wouldn’t run in the halls anyway. Hornet knew all the hidden passages and secret doors, and could get around the palace quicker than anyone. 

The retainer wouldn’t tell anyone she was missing. He would be too worried about getting in trouble to send anyone after her, and would instead search as stealthily as he could. 

Hornet didn’t intend to skip her lessons. She liked her teacher. But she was going to find Pure and give them her flowers first. 

As soon as she was out of eyeshot of the retainer, she ducked behind a silvery tapestry and waited, catching her breath. The familiar feeling of silk brushed across her as the tapestry settled. 

Hardly seconds later, she heard the clicking footsteps of the retainer as he walked as quickly as he could without it being running after her. 

She held her breath. 

His footsteps faded. 

Hornet sighed with relief, then grinned. She was free. 

She ducked out from under the tapestry and took off in the opposite direction. If Pure was training, they would probably be in one of the gardens or the actual sparring pit, where the knights would fight. The sparring pit was far away from the center of the palace though, and if Pure was there Hornet would have heard about it from passing gossip by now. Whenever Pure went anywhere it was big news. 

Up ahead, Hornet heard voices. She glanced to either side, not slowing down in her running, and saw only a blank wall. There was a pillar up ahead, but she would have to get there before whoever was talking turned the corner. 

_ I’m fast.  _

Hornet tightened her grip on her needle, and dashed at the pillar, swinging around it with one hand and crashing into it with her full body, the hand holding her needle hitting something else. 

A large decorative vase, one Hornet had forgotten was there. 

It fell to the ground with a massive  _ crash,  _ shattered porcelain flying everywhere and the two nobles she had been trying to hide from shouting with surprise. Hornet was standing in the middle of it, completely unharmed. 

She waved to the nobles, trying to hide that she was shaken too. They stared at her, shocked, pressed against the opposite wall. 

She heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Not the clacking, lighter steps of a royal retainer or noble, but the heavy, sharp ones of a kingsmould, alerted by all the noise she was making. 

“Bye!” Hornet squeaked, and turned to run, broken bits of vase sliding under her heels. One of the nobles shouted something at her, probably just  _ come back here young lady, you’re in trouble now,  _ but she ignored it and took off in a different direction, down a hall, through an open door, her shoes sliding on the stone floor, and, before she could stop herself, over the edge of a balcony without a railing and into thin air. 

* * *

She flailed her arms, her cloak flying over her head so she couldn’t see anything. She heard more yelling, and she was falling so much longer than she expected, and she was holding her needle so tightly she expected the shellwood to shatter, and she braced herself to hit the ground below—  _ was there a garden here? Or just stone?—  _ but the ground never came. 

She felt a sharp jerk as someone caught the edge of her cloak, then two strong hands gently spinning her around so she was upright and brushing the cloak off of her head. 

She looked up to see that she was face to face with Pure, who was holding her out in front of them like she weighed nothing. 

“Pure!” Hornet held out her arms, and Pure, silent as always, just tipped their mask to the side and looked at her. “You’re supposed to give me a hug.” 

Slowly, they pulled her into their chest, switching from holding her under her arms to wrapping their arms around her. Her chin bumped against their armor. She giggled. 

“Vessel, set down the princess.” Hornet heard the voice from somewhere over Pure’s shoulder. They made a soft huffing sound, unbearable to anyone but Hornet, and gently placed her on the ground.

She looked up and around. The two of them were standing in one of the gardens, Pure’s greatnail stuck halfway hilt-deep in the ground a little behind them, where a kingsmould was standing holding a nail of its own. They had been  _ fighting.  _ With a  _ real nail.  _ Hornet wasn’t even allowed to  _ hold  _ a real nail. 

“Pure! You get to use your real nail for training!” Hornet squeaked, and grabbed onto their leg and looked up at them. The tops of her horns were hardly up to their knee, and they would only get taller. Hornet was going to be real tall when she grew up too, so she could be like them. 

They bent over slightly and looked at her, and for the first time, she noticed a small spiderwebbing of cracks along the jawline of their mask. “Oh, no! Are you hurt?” 

“The vessel is fine, Princess.” A knight Hornet didn’t recognize stepped out from behind Pure, her own nail strapped to her back. “Are you alright? That was a nasty fall.” 

“I’m fine! Pure caught me!” Hornet wrapped her arms tighter around Pure’s leg, hugging it. “Thank you Pure!”

They stared at her, silent.

“Now you say that you’re welcome!” 

“The Vessel cannot speak, Princess.” The knight crossed her arms. 

“I can speak enough for both of us!” Hornet snapped. “Pure, now you say that you’re welcome!” 

Pure’s shoulders were shaking slightly. They reached down with one hand and placed it on top of Hornet’s face. She giggled. 

“See?”

The knight sighed. “Princess, don’t you have a lesson?” 

“Pure wants to come.” Hornet tugged on their leg. They removed their hand from her head and looked at her, head tipped to the side. 

“Princess—“

“Nod for yes, Pure.” Hornet tugged on their leg again. Pure nodded once, slowly. “See?”

“They are just following your orders, Princess, the Vessel cannot  _ want—“ _

“Blah, blah, blah. Come on Pure.” Hornet tugged on their leg a third time, and they took a step forward, glancing over at the knight. 

“Princess, they have training.” 

Hornet let go of Pure’s leg and spun around to face the knight, hands on her hips. “No!”

The knight frowned, puzzled. “Princess?”

“Yeah, I’m princess.” Hornet grabbed Pure’s hand. “And I say Pure is coming to my lesson.” 

The knight looked rather deflated as she rubbed her forehead and sighed. Hornet tended to have that effect on people. 

“Okay great! Pure let’s go!” Hornet started pulling them along, ignoring the knight entirely. Pure stumbled slightly and stopped walking. Hornet let go of their hand. 

“Oh, do you want your nail? You can go get it.” Hornet patted the back of their hand. 

They dipped their head to her and turned to fetch the nail. 

The knight, who still looked a little irritated, sighed. “It threw the nail into the ground like solid stone was a pile of sand and ran to catch you. I didn’t even have to order it. Never seen it move that fast before.”

“That’s ‘cause they care about me!” Hornet chirped. 

The knight looked very much like she wanted to say something but thought the better of it. 

Pure returned, dragging their nail behind them, and stood next to Hornet. They easily towered over the knight, who took a half step back to avoid standing in their shadow. 

They slid their free hand into Hornet’s. 

“We’re going.” Hornet announced. “And I’m the princess so I get to say so.” 

The knight stared at the pair, and her face softened, for just a moment. “The vessel needs to be back here in an hour.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Hornet spun around Pure’s arm. “Pure, let's go!” 

The Vessel put their nail in its sheath on their back with a soft scraping sound, and let Hornet drag them off into the gardens. 

* * *

“I got you flowers!” Hornet directed Pure to sit down on a stone bench in the garden and began digging around in her pockets and under her cloak, looking for the clumsy wreath she had made them. “Oh… it must have gotten lost when I fell off the balcony. Sorry.” she dipped her head sadly. 

Pure reached out and patted her shoulder twice, awkwardly. Hornet smiled. 

“I’ll make you a new one, ‘kay? And you can wear it for the lesson!” she gently tugged at their brilliant white cloak. “Add some color. Like me!” 

Pure gently took the edge of Hornet’s scarlet cloak and held it up next to theirs.

“If you like it, I’d give you one of mine. You might be too tall though.” She paused and smiled. “My mama made them for me, so they’re full of love, an’ I think you should have some love too.” 

Pure dropped the edge of her cloak and dipped their head down to look at the ground, their fingers twitching slightly. Hornet patted their arm. 

The whole garden was planted in silvery shades, white and grey and hints of green, and Hornet’s vibrant red stood out sharply against it, while if Pure stood very still, like they did most of the time, they could easily be mistaken for a statue. 

“I’m going to go get you some more flowers, ‘kay?” Hornet patted Pure’s forehead, now in reach for her while they were seated. She still had to stand on her tiptoes though, even with their head bowed. 

Pure stared at her, silently. Hornet patted their head again and dashed off into the garden to collect as many flowers as she could. 

She returned with a handful of already slightly wilted and crushed flowers to see Pure sitting in the exact same position as when she left. 

“I got you flowers, look!” She held up the bundle of small, white flowers. Pure tipped their head to look at her, and she caught sight of the cracks in their mask again. It had started leaking something very dark. “Oh, no! I forgot, you’re hurt. Let me see.” she dropped the handful of flowers onto their lap and climbed onto the bench to get a better look at it. 

Pure bent down further and let Hornet gently prod at the cracks. The dark stuff was cold, very cold, and felt more like fog then a liquid. She frowned and rubbed some of it off of their mask and onto her thumb. They flinched, their shoulders stiffening. 

“Is this like, blood?”

Pure didn’t react to her at all. 

“Well, I think it’s something like blood so you should… um…” Hornet put her hands on her hips, thinking very hard about what to do when someone gets hurt. “Put pressure? To stop bleeding? And then clean it up and put on a bandage. But I don’t think I have any silk to bandage it with so we can just do the other ones, right?” In Hornet's opinion, bandages were the best part of getting a scrape. Then people would ask what happened and she could tell them about all her adventures. But Pure couldn’t talk to tell people, and getting hit during training wasn’t much of an adventure anyway. Maybe she could come up with something more fun for them. Like fighting off a hundred dirtcarvers at once or something exciting. 

Hornet only had a vague idea of what Pure was being trained for, but she was sure it was something very big and heroic that would get them stories and songs written about them. Or maybe a statue. Having a statue of Pure would be cool, and they could stand next to it and look majestic, and Hornet could point it out when she walked by and tell people that that was her sibling. 

Hornet leaned close to Pure’s mask and took a look at the crack. “Is this really bleeding anymore? I don’t think so.” Hornet hopped off the bench and started shuffling around in the foliage, looking for a soft leaf to clean off their mask. Pure leaned forwards slightly to watch her, shifting their arm so the flowers wouldn’t fall off their lap. 

“Here!” Hornet held up a small, fuzzy, silvery-green leaf. “I’m going to wipe off your mask because I think that’s the only first aid thing I can really do. Unless I have any silk.” 

She hopped onto the bench and gently dabbed at the dark stuff leaking out of Pure’s mask. They stiffened again, and this time Hornet stepped away from them. 

“Does that hurt?” 

Pure made a soft huffing sound and relaxed again, hanging their head to look at the ground. 

“Can I keep cleaning it off? Nod for yes.” 

Pure nodded twice. Hornet stepped forwards and started brushing at the cracks again. This time, Pure didn’t react at all, just stayed stiller then the stone Hornet was standing on. 

She stepped back to see the results of her work after a couple of minutes, dropping the leaf on the bench. “There. All clean. I’m going to see if I have any silk to wrap it up with, okay?” 

Pure quietly watched her while she started looking in her pockets. She had loads of pockets. Her mama knew that she liked pockets to store interesting things in, like flowers and shiny bits of rock and some spare geo, so the inside of her cloak was lined with them. She started pulling things out of them and setting them on the bench: some more wilted flowers, a handful of beads, and, after several minutes of dumping junk on the bench, a tiny spool of silk. Hornet triumphantly held it up and placed it on Pure’s knee while she started putting things back in her pockets. 

“Okay! All done!” 

Pure tipped their head slightly, and looked down at the stone questioningly. Hornet picked up the small square of red fabric she had left behind and held it up. It was probably a handkerchief or toy blanket or maybe just something she’d picked up from her mama’s sewing basket. 

“This silk on its own is no good for a bandage, so we could use this!” She placed the red square into Pure’s hand and they lifted it up to their face, investigating it before they handed it back. 

“Will you hold it into your cut?” Hornet folded the square in half and handed it to them again. “I gotta use both of my hands.” 

They lifted the fabric to their face and pressed it against the crack. Hornet nodded approvingly and started wrapping the thin silk around their mask. They held so very still that she might as well have been bandaging up a toy. Hornet tied the end of the silk in a very messy bow and stepped back to observe her work. It was much clumsier then the bandages her mama would give her, but it held the fabric to Pure’s face well. 

She nodded, then shook her head. “It needs something else. Here.” Hornet picked up one of the flowers off Pure’s lap and carefully tucked it into the top of the silk wrapping. She stepped back again, frowned, and shook her head again. “Needs another flower.” 

* * *

  
By the time Hornet led Pure out onto the  balcony for her lesson, the two were nearly an hour late and Pure was covered in flowers. A crown around one of their horns, flowers tucked into the silk bandage, flowers in every place she could possibly reach in their armor, and a small bouquet of flowers held tightly in one of their hands. Hornet had her own flower necklace, of course, one she had made herself and was very proud of, but it was nothing compared to the magnificent ruff of flowers over Pure’s head and shoulders. 

They looked rather like a bush. An untidy one. And they wore it with pride, their other hand holding onto Hornet’s tiny one like she was the whole world. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello I hope you enjoyed my nonsense! I’m no thoughts head full of love for the bug game and if you are also and would like to come yell I’m on tumblr @two-am-art.


End file.
